Sidney Lowe 2.0

NC State basketball coach Sidney Lowe dropped by the morning show to catch us up with his offseason. The man has been busy golfing at the Rex Hospital Open, checking out the Carolina Hurricanes, making the rounds for Wolfpack Club caravans, and quietly putting together an exciting recruiting class. After a 3-year transition, the upcoming 2009-2010 season appears to be a fresh start. Think Star Trek or any number of Hollywood franchise reboots populating the theaters. With an all-new cast running the offense, Lowe sounds like heâ€™s looking forward to sitting down during the game action.

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27 Responses to Sidney Lowe 2.0

When Luke Cothron was asked what it is he likes about State he simply said, “Head Coach.” If we do discover over the next few years that Sid isn’t the guy for the Head Coaching job I hope he can still find a way to help the program. I doubt he would take a demotion, but I would hope he could still find a way to get kids to sit down with us.

Wow, Joe Ovies said something positive about NC State? This morning he was talking about how half of Carter-Finley’s fans would be too drunk to be able to tell the difference between a wolf and a Siberian Husky on the sidelines. Maybe he was trying to be funny, I don’t know. It kind of came across as a G-105 / Bob Dumas sort of comment.

After the Lowe interview, I listened to that for a couple of minutes and finally hit the “XM” button on the radio. Rivals Radio and solid serious college sports talk immediately filled the car. That show is worth the price of XM/Sirius by itself, not to mention you can be sure to get play by play of nearly any sport anywhere you go.

Off Topic but does anyone have any info on whether all our recruits will be playing, some buzz on other sites about player/players not qualifying. Go Pack has the official roster out and all six recruits are listed

Sidney, I believe, is unrivaled among the entire history of our coaches in an interview. 850, obviously, has been known to ‘needle’ our coaches and to attempt to provoke… and although it was done gently in this interview, Sidney responded with immense grace and class.

Like it or not, it is an essential component of COACHING today to be able to represent your university well in an interview (was it the Illinois [or OK State] football coach who ‘went off’ on the media, and ended up being released?). Certainly, Amato’s “big-chested,” larger-than-life, ‘tough guy’ personna was an invitation for provocation among sports writers and media.

I don’t believe there’s much ‘meat’ in the interview to talk about… simply the interview itself. Bottom line, we, 850, and the ‘casual [i.e., unaffiliated] fan’ out there who hears the interview comes away feeling very good about our future. THAT’S all any on us would hope in such an interview.

You might want–at some point–to ‘archive’ and make available Sidney’s address to the NC Legislature in 1983 honoring BOTH UNC and NC State’s accomplishments… In it, young man Sidney showed his promise way back then…

FWIW, my wife and I were listening to the interview on our way to work this morning. She’s a UNC Grad, and said she thought some of Gold’s comments were horrible. She thought it was heavily biased against Sidney and the Wolfpack. You know it’s a bad interview when a Tarheel fan even thinks its unfair!

Really good interview, you can hear it in Lowe’s voice that he’s excited about the upcoming year. Gold did have some loaded questions, but that is what makes talk radio. Out with the old and in with the new.. It was good to hear the comments on Mays and Williams, hopefully the same can be expected from Javi and Tracy this year. I bet there will be some battles for playing time. Which is how you get better.

Alpha, I agree. But V could occasionally [and I DO mean only occasionally] come off as ‘lounge-singer/entertainer’ and, ‘over-the-top funny man’… which had the effect of cheapening himself, the program, and the university. Once or twice, after an outrageous call at the end of the game, V could be needlingly sarcastic and ‘short’ with the interviewers & press (I would be too).

Sid is… Sid–whether in ‘hurricane,’ natural disaster, or ‘sunny skies’ of circumstance. He always “represents” with immense authenticity, warmth, and ‘diplomacy’ with an answer that does not seek to evade the question. Even Opie RoyBoy used the ‘F-bomb’ in an on-camera interview in the midst of their championship run. That just can’t and won’t happen with Sid–or so it appears at this point.

Sidney gives a great interview. You don’t get the jobs that he’s gotten w/out being able to sit down in front of important people in a face to face conversation and impress them.

Unfortunately, the ability to be impressive in interviews has ZERO impact on how you’ll run a program. His communication skills and confident demeanor can help him in recruiting, but that hasn’t yet translated into any kind of success on the court.

Chop, I know it looks bad and I can’t argue with some of the examples cited to back up the can’t coach comments.
However, he did a pretty good job his first year giving the holes a run for their money in the conference finals. My old memory fails me sometimes but wasn’t Atsur out for a considerable stretch mid season.
Had the previous coach scored an ACC caliber PG before he split for the desert, our seasons 2 & 3 could have been different.
I’ve seen the raps on Sid for not recruiting a 4* or 5* PG for seasons 2 & 3 but how many were on the board?
We, that is nobody, on this board knows what Sid was doing with those crazy line-ups or substitution patterns. If he was trying to keep the games close, well, all that has been said is accurate. If he was trying various combinations to find out who could play or how various players would respond in different situations — looking to the future — that would be a different story. Whatever the answer is it would not be publicized and we will never know.
There is some evidence that he can coach. But without an ACC quality PG, who could have done any better. Not Calipari, not Barnes, not Roy and not K.
So please, let’s not attack the good points just because he didn’t meet our expectations those first years.

1) Failure to land a better class than Mays and Williams in 2008. Don’t get me wrong I love Mays and Williams as much as the next guy but we needed a much better class and Lowe just didnt deliver.

2) The 10-15 minutes during nearly every game where it seemed the team just gave up. I know Costner’s taken a lot of heat for this and deservedly so, but Costner was not the only player who had lapses.
Lowe has got to find a way to get these guys motivated no if’s and’s or but’s. He has to do whatever it takes. Costner should not have been starting the second half of last season, Lowe should have benched him and made it clear he got minutes when he started putting out.

If Lowe cant get his players motivated and playing like a team it won’t make a damn how many 4 and 5 star recruits we land. 2007-2008 proved that.

That said I really want to believe that all the motivation problems stemmed from Costner, McCauley, and Fells and next season we will see a completely renewed Wolfpack squad take the floor and hustle and win games.

Grey – there’s definitely some evidence that he can coach – but unfortunately, success in college basketball has little to do w/ what kind of adjustments you make during the game.

Most battles are won before they are fought. And these ACC battles are won in the offseason – by an organized and well-executed strategy in recruiting, developing existing players physically (read – skillsets and conditioning) and mentally, prepping the players before the game and executing the gameplan. The best coaches don’t have to do sh*t on gameday – the work for the most part is done.

I’m confident that Sidney has forgotten more about basketball than I will ever know. But I’m not confident that’s enough.

I saw some improvements last year in some key areas. But there is still ZERO evidence that Lowe can do what it takes to guide a basketball team through a successful SEASON.

It’s obvious from some of the statements that Lowe and Costner have made that there was a big rift between the two. I beleive that McCauley also may have been a part of the teams motivation problems.

It is also likely that if two starting seniors had problems with the coach and system that it spilled over and affected the morale and motivation of other players.

It is fair to criticize Lowe for not taking care of this, that’s what the coach is their for. I don’t think Lowe has the people management part of his job down yet. Motivating and instilling discipline in 18 to 22 year old kids is completely different than coaching pros. Lowe must find a way to improve in this area or he will not make it.

I have a gut feeling that this is changing Smith, Mays, and Williams all played with heart last year, and I am confident, judging by interviews from some of this years recruits, that several of them, particulary Wood and Painter,are dedicated to playing hard and winning games.